An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'draw in', with lots of examples in context.
Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs!
This post is all about the English phrasal verb 'draw in'. This moderately common phrasal verb is one that is used to talk about a variety of different things such as breathing, attracting someone's attention and darkness. In this post I will outline and explain the different meanings that 'draw in' has and provide you with lots of examples in context to help you learn and memorise them. So, without further ado, let's get started. Don't forget to leave a comment at the end!
DRAW IN: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Medium |
Number of meanings | 4 |
Past tense forms? | Drew in / Drawn in |
Separable? | Yes |
MEANINGS (click to jump to each one)
To attract someone
To inhale
To arrive at a station
To get shorter (days)
THE BASICS
To enable us to fully understand the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'draw in', let's begin by considering the words 'draw' and 'in' and what they mean on their own.
Firstly, we have the verb 'to draw', which is an interesting verb with several distinct, yet linked, meanings in English. If we go back and look at its history, the verb 'to draw' is in fact a variation of the verb 'to drag', meaning to pull something with force or difficulty. From this, we get the main ideas of 'to draw' in modern English, which include pulling something behind you, pulling curtains open, attracting a crowd of people and 'breathing (literally pulling air). In addition, we also have the idea of drawing a picture, as this involves pulling a pen or pencil across paper.
The horse drew the carriages along the road.
Taylor Swift's concert in London is expected to draw a huge crowd.
It's getting dark, so I'm going to draw the curtains.
It was difficult to draw breath up the mountain.
These meanings are not exhaustive as there are indeed many ways that 'draw' can be used in English but the vast majority can all be logically traced back to the idea of pulling or dragging something.
Next, we have the prepositional particle 'in', which you will certainly be very familiar with. 'In' can function as a preposition, adverb, adjective and even as a rare noun. As you will probably be able to guess, the meaning of 'in' is primarily to talk about being inside something, included in something or moving towards the interior of something. When used in phrasal verbs, 'in' often conveys this inwards direction or movement to the base verb, but it can also be used to add the ideas of inclusion, involvement, transformation and arrival.
Now that we have covered the basics, let's head to the main reason that you are here reading this page, i.e. the meanings of the phrasal verb 'draw in'....
MEANING 1: To attract and involve somebody in something
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To attract, to involve, to implicate, to captivate |
Potential antonyms | To repel |
Separable? | Yes |
The first meaning is of 'draw in' that we will look at in this post is 'to attract and involve someone in something'. I was originally going to split this first usage into two parts, however there is so much overlap between them that I thought it would be better to do it all in one.
So, firstly, to 'draw someone in' can mean to attract someone's attention, usually as their interest has been sparked. This concept is commonly expressed in the passive form, i.e. someone is drawn in by something.
This particular piece of art drew me in as I was walking around the gallery. I was fascinated by it and wanted to know more about it.
I wasn't sure about the book but after reading a couple of pages, it had completely drawn me in and I was hooked.
I was struggling to listen to what my wife was saying as I had been drawn in by the conversation on the table next to us.
When considering the meanings of the words 'draw' and 'in' that I explained in the previous section, this meaning should be quite logical to you as when we are attracted by something, our attention is pulled towards it.
Sometimes, when people are drawn in by something interesting or captivating, it is not uncommon for them to to take it one step further and move towards the object or spectacle that has caught their attention, a bit like they are being pulled by a magnet and this application of 'draw in' also applies here. This could be something small or simple such as going into a shop because you are intrigued about what is shown in its window display or something large, such as a music concert or festival which attracts thousands of people who are interested in the artists and want to watch the show.
The music festival is expected to draw in a crowd of over 100,000 people this weekend.
The smell of the fresh bread drew baking me into the bakery.
You the destination to which we are drawn is one that is a physical interior space, then we would use 'draw into' rather than draw in'.
My friends and I were drawn into the bar by the happy hour promotion in the window.
My mum always gets drawn into clothes shops by the pretty clothes in the window.
Lastly, not only can we be drawn into physical spaces, but it is also possible to be drawn into situations and predicaments. In other words, something causes you to become involved in something. This is especially true if the situation is a negative one and we do not wish to be a part of it, such as an argument between friends or a work conflict or dilemma. Again, we tend to use the variation form 'draw into' here when talking about being in a situation.
They've asked me for my opinion on the subject and I said nothing as I refuse to be drawn into it.
When I was a naive teenager, I was drawn into a religious cult.
How have I got drawn into this argument? It has nothing to do with me!
I was drawn into the debate on Facebook after reading the comments. They made me so angry that I felt that I had to give my opinion.
MEANING 2: To inhale
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To breathe in, to inspire, to suck in |
Potential antonyms | To breathe out, to exhale, to expire, to blow out |
Separable | Yes |
As you may recall from the Basics section, one of the meanings of our base verb 'to draw' is to breathe, so this next meaning is a nice and easy one that simply means 'to inhale' or 'breathe in'. Quite literally, this is purely the idea of pulling air into your lungs.
This particular application of 'breathe in' normally requires a direct object, which is typically either a breath or air. It is also separable, with the direct object (breath or air) going either between or after the phrasal verb, with no discernible change in meaning.
Before starting my speech, I drew in a deep breath and focused on the words that I had to say.
The patient struggled to draw in air through her nose.
Engaging your abdomen to draw in breath will give you more air.
Be careful not to confuse the noun 'breath' with the verb 'to breathe' here and remember that they have very different pronunciation and the final 'e' makes all the difference...
MEANING 3: To arrive at a station
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To arrive, to pull in |
Potential antonyms | To leave, to depart, to pull off, to pull away |
Separable | No |
Our third meaning of 'draw in' is one for all the trainspotters amongst you as it is primarily used for trains and means 'to arrive at a station'. We use this application specifically to talk about the moment when a train is slowing down as it approaches a railway station and is about to stop or is stopping.
Again, for this meaning we can trace it back to the idea of drawing to mean pulling, as the train is pulling the carriages behind it, with 'in' adding the idea of arriving at the destination to where the train is travelling.
For this usage, we use the additional preposition 'to' to indicate the place where the train stops i.e. the station, the platform or the city.
I saw my wife waiting for me on the platform as my train was drawing in.
The train drew in and all of the passengers got off, but I couldn't see you anywhere!
When my train drew into London Waterloo Station, I looked around at all of the crowds on the platform.
MEANING 4: To get shorter (days)
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | British English |
Potential synonyms | To get shorter |
Potential antonyms | To get longer, to draw out |
Separable? | No |
For those of us who live far from the equator, it is a fact of life that every year the days get a lot shorter the closer you get to 21st December and a lot longer the closer you get to 21st June. With the UK being situated far from the equator in the northern hemisphere, we tend to experience quite stark differences in the length of days compared to some of our more southerly neighbours. Therefore it is perhaps no surprise that we have come up with a pair of phrasal verbs to describe this very phenomenon, namely 'to draw in and 'to draw out'.
To clarify, we use 'draw out' for when the hours of light in a day get gradually longer, between December and June, and 'draw in' for the other half of the year when the daytimes become shorter and the hours of darkness get longer. Typically, we use 'draw in' the most in the early autumn (fall), i.e. September or early October in the northern hemisphere, when it becomes more apparent that the sun is setting sooner and winter is on the way.
Something that is slightly confusing with this usage is that, in addition to saying that the days are 'drawing in' to express that they are getting shorter, we can also say that the nights or evenings are also drawing in and this means exactly the same thing. Basically, whenever we use 'draw in' in this sense, we are talking about the days getting shorter, regardless of the noun that we use...English is very strange sometimes! 🤷🏻♂️
It's the summer solstice next week, which means that the days will start drawing in again.
You can tell that autumn is on the way. The nights have really started drawing in in the last couple of weeks.
The evenings are drawing in now and I don't have much time to go for a run in the daylight after work anymore.
We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new.
Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'draw in'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!!
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THE END
Days are starting to draw in in September